Page 33 of Her Former Bear Mate

"Really?"Aditi grew quiet and stopped pacing."I thought you didn't want to go into the lake cause you thought we weren't fated."

"That's not it at all.I don't want you to be with me because you think I'm your fated mate.I want you to choose me because you love me.Me.Not your fated mate."

"And I do!"The intense fierceness in Aditi's eyes made it clear she meant it too."I love you more than anything.The only reason I think we're fated mates is because I love you so."

"Then why do we have to go into the lake to prove it?"

"Aaah!We have been over this!"Aditi screeched and stomped her feet."Fine, no lake!Let's just get mated and married.Screw fate.I don't care about fate.I just want you."

A warmth washed over Lena but it wasn't a gentle kind, more like a burning uncomfortable heat."No."

"No?"

"No.I might not like all the traditions from our society but being mated is a big deal.You're a shifter, you shouldn't mate without anyone that's not your fated."

"I thought you believed that was you."

"I do."Lena sank down on her chair and practically hid her face.She voiced something that had been in the dark depths of her heart but she hadn't wanted to give power to."But I'm scared I'm not."

Aditi's hand rubbed up and down her back."Oh, Lena."

That was the second time that she needed Aditi to comfort her and it felt so good.The soft strokes of Aditi's hand were soothing and Lena hadn't realised how much she missed it, how nice it was to have someone who took off the sharp edges of her mood.

Aditi sat down, finally, and took Lena's face in her hands."We don't have to go.We can just be happy together, you and me.Right?"

Lena didn't have to know Aditi so well to know she was trying to convince both of them in the same breath.Something really had changed in Aditi and she'd come to believe in this silly fated mate system.

She really should've known.All shifters eventually got that craving.Or maybe because they'd been alive for much longer, the beliefs of their society had become internalised.Whatever it was, she couldn't see that burning rebellion in Aditi anymore.Instead, there was just longing.

"We're going to the fated lake," Lena said firmly, quickly adding more on before the other woman could protest."This isn't to placate you.We're going because I love you and you want this more than I don't want it.And I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen?We'll break up?"

Aditi chuckled but there was no humour in it."You're right.What do we have to lose?"

"Only each other and that's already happened."Lena took Aditi's hands in her own, marvelling as always by how much daintier they were."Let's find out once and for all."

TWENTY

Aditi

Nerves tingledthrough Aditi in places she didn't even know she had nerves.After thinking about coming to Crescent Lake, it was a little surreal to be actually here.Especially because she'd only been once, way before Lena, and hadn't even gone into the water out of protest.

And now she was here, and all the possibilities were flooding through her, pinging on all her anxieties.It didn't help that she was wearing a bikini that was ever so slightly too small because she hadn't needed one in a while.

What if she was wrong and Lena wasn't her fated mate?Would that really mean the end for them?

That thought was so scary, she could see why Lena hadn't wanted to come here.This was all too much.

Lena's hand slipped into hers and she instantly felt a little better.Even if it didn't work out for them tonight, she got two more weeks of bliss out of it.And if they broke up this time, maybe she would be able to let go properly.

"It's busy," Lena mused, looking around at all the other hopefuls gathering around the lake.

Aditi hummed."I never knew so many people went.This is wild."

"It is.Oh look, there's two bears there."Lena pointed out two black bears strolling towards the beach."Recognise them?"

"Not all bear shifters know each other," Aditi grumbled."But that looks like it might be some Honeywells."

Lena chuckled in amusement and bumped her arm into Aditi's shoulder."You could shift too, if you wanted to."

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